Rebarreling Beam Rye-plus

The following is a continuation from the General Bourbon Discussion page:

Doug, perhaps you can help me on this. For your scotch rebarreling you added a good amount of GNS before going into the barrel. Why didn't you do this to increase the entry proof of your Ancient Age experiment?

What I'm wondering for my rebarreling is if I should add some GNS. I'm hesitant. That's one reason why I've decided to throw in the OP. Not only is it a fine distillate, but it's pure rye. I want the rye whiskey effect as an end result.

This feels all a tad silly to be thinking so precisely. I don't know what'll come out the other end, using such a small barrel and all...

More to come on this, but not for a little while as I'm waiting for the sunlight to come through my window in the spring/summer (more silliness?).

Re: Rebarreling Beam Rye-plus

I'm not sure of Doug's entire reasoning, but I do know that there is a bit of a problem obtaining 190 proof GNS in CA. I hand-delivered it to him since I was driving in...though it does seem to be available in Needles, CA., but they likely get it from a AZ distributor as 190 proof spirits are banned in CA.

The 190 allowed him to boost the proof without adding as much water as the 150ish proof stuff would, thereby maintaining the flavor profile as much as possible.

That's as much as I know, Doug will have to give any further info.

2010 Bourbonian of the Year

As long as you have good whiskey you're not "unemployed", you're "Funemployed!!!"

Re: Rebarreling Beam Rye-plus

Originally Posted by jinenjo

The following is a continuation from the General Bourbon Discussion page:

Doug, perhaps you can help me on this. For your scotch rebarreling you added a good amount of GNS before going into the barrel. Why didn't you do this to increase the entry proof of your Ancient Age experiment?

What I'm wondering for my rebarreling is if I should add some GNS. I'm hesitant. That's one reason why I've decided to throw in the OP. Not only is it a fine distillate, but it's pure rye. I want the rye whiskey effect as an end result.

This feels all a tad silly to be thinking so precisely. I don't know what'll come out the other end, using such a small barrel and all...

More to come on this, but not for a little while as I'm waiting for the sunlight to come through my window in the spring/summer (more silliness?).

Any comments are more than welcome!

-Lear

Lear,

IMHO, it is not silly to think so "precisely"...thinking is, what is the interesting part of these experiments is all about for me...is that too many is's...Anyway, couple that with the outcome of each project and I become a bit more familiar with how the wood works with whiskey. (I love to learn about whiskey, any part of it)

I have had lots of "help" with little bits of information from a lot of folks here on the forum to avoid mistakes in my projects...it is still left up to me to compile that information along with my own thought process prior to the actual rebarreling. That's the precise part or the thoughtful part...but, it has all been uncharted territory for me as I did not grow up with any exposure to alcohol or distilling. Hence, the intense interest for me.

As for the GNS part, well, there is a ton of thought behind that. In the AA project, (BTW, the AA did have GNS added to it!) it might be easy to loose taste if too much of anything was added to the mix, AA whiskey watered down to 80 proof is already quite dilute, so caution must be given when adding GNS. Getting into the preference to add 191 over the available 151 made more sense from a taste standpoint...ie, less water.

In the case of the Finlaggin, the Islay malts have a real tendency for lots of flavor compared to proof, even watered down to 40&#37; Islay malts have very big flavor profiles. This, in my mind, was an area where I could raise proof and not need to worry about the flavor thinning out as I might in the AA barrel.

At the end of the experiment, I don't know what I'll have to drink, might not be any good at all, but what I will have is some more knowledge. (In the recent past Study Group, the Finlaggin did not show too well, but it was interesting, that said, time will be allowed to go to work here and work its magic in the wood and on the spirit)

For me, these experiments allow a tiny little look at what Master Distillers and the lab folks do to get good product on the shelf for us to drink. My respect for the "Craft" or "Art" of distilling grows higher with every experiment and bit of new knowledge gained along the way...

Oops!

Well I began the rebarrel project. And I think I made the mistake of adding the barrel proof Old Potrero. It seems my palette has grown quite accustomed to straight rye and the small amount I added of the OP (only 8-10 ounces) may have thrown off the whole thing.

I did do some sampling before I entered the vatting to be aged, but I guess I really wanted some extra proof in there because I still proceeded to add the above amount of the malted rye of OP.

Then in a frenzy to adjust back toward a more straight rye profile, I went and added nearly two full bottles of baby Saz to the 2L Beam Rye in the 3L barrel.

I just tasted it after a week and am not sure what to think. Part of me thought to add straight bourbon to give it some corn flavor to balance out the rye thing going on. At this point I'm gonna let it age for as long as I can and I'll just see what happens.

It's been a learning experience, and I'll just chalk it up to that. Looking back already I should've just used all Beam rye.

Re: Oops!

There are going to be lots of changes happening over the next months. I would wait on making lots of tweaks up front.

I did a WT Rye rebarrel and it started off slow, then once i got some heat/cold cycles going things started happening. At one point I thought it was getting too much wood flavor....well I waited more weeks and it eventually passed and it became less woody and I started to get some really nice toasted notes.

Re: Rebarreling Beam Rye-plus

Thanks for the encouragement. Because of the less fluctuations in temperature here in NorCal, I have on a few days induced somewhat artificial temperature fluctuations by putting the barrel in my car with direct sunlight where the car temp gets pretty hot, then at night I bring the barrel inside and put it by an open window to cool off.

Roger (Rughi) was telling me the small size of my barrel (3 liters) will rapidly advance the wood influence. However, I'd like to see if I can follow your experience and push through any stronger wood influence to see what might come afterward. It's all an experiment so why not push it to see what happens? Part of me would like to push it as far as I can.

I had this odd dream the other night or perhaps it was a fantasy--perhaps induced by some pours of Elijah Craig 18--as I was going to bed. I don't know. But what I was thinking was that the older versions of bourbon or rye were kept deeper in the warehouses, not exposed as much to the more extreme changing temperatures as say, younger bottles expressions placed toward the periphery.

Is this true? Should I just let the barrel sit by my window and be exposed to less temperature changes and just age for a long time?